Making and employing hair teasing combs

ABSTRACT

Making and utilizing a hair comb having a tooth base teasing sector, band or area of a skid-resistant, soft, nonabrasive, flexible, rubberlike, highly adherent reinforcing material.

United States Patent [191 [111 3,867,502 Moody Feb. 18, 1975 [54] MAKINGAND EMPLOYING HAIR TEASING 2,457,440 12/1948 Booth 264/271 CO 2,523,9249/1950 Sawyer 425/D1G. 805 2,581,845 1/1952 Elliott 264/271 [76]Inventor: Carl A. Moody, 889 Rollmg Rock 2 09,321 9 1952 Wei55berger132/110 Rd., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15234 2,641,024 6/1953. Panagrossi....264/271 ,9 1 64 [22] Flled: June 29, 1971 3 571 20 3/197 Berg 2 /272[21] Appl. No.: 158,016

Primary Examiner-Robert F. White Related Apphcatmn Data AssistantExaminerJeffery R. Thurlow [62] Division of Ser. No. 722, Jan. 5, 1970,Pat. No. Att ey, Ag nt, or Firm Th0mas G. Miller [52] U.S. Cl 264/263,132/108, 264/267,

264/273, 264/328 [57] ABSTRACT [51] Int. Cl B29d 3/00 [58] Field OfSearch 264/267-268, Making and utilizing a hair comb having a tooth base328, teasing sector, band or area of a skid-resistant, soft,

132/108-111, 163; 425/D1G. 80 nonabrasive, flexible, rubberlike, highlyadherent reinforcing material. [56] References Cited UNITED STATESPATENTS 7 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures 2,122,699 7/1938 Rembalinsky 132/110r #7 b I lillllllllllllll 24;]! /3 ill or TR 2 (I 3 I? H 1'11 1 i 5alelllilalii PAN-INK!) FEB 1 8 llllllllll H ITL-i/g. L

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is-a division ofmy co-pending application Ser. No. 722, filed Jan. 5, 1970, entitledHair Teasing Comb now US. Pat. No. 3,628,545 of Dec. 21, 197i.

The invention relates to the making and utilizing of a new and improvedcomb construction for teasing or fluffing hair and particularly, to acomb having a base portion or sector along its teeth of a resilient orelastic nature whose surface provides a selective, non-tearing,frictional-like engagement with hair strands during a teasing or backcombing operation.

In the field of Cosmotology, teasing involves combing small portions ofthe hair ends toward the scalp to cause the shorter hair to mat adjacentthe scalp and form a cushion or base. It is known as ratting, Frenchlacing or roughing and fluffmg. The purpose is to seemingly increase thevolume of hair and to expand it as positioned on the human scalp or on awig. The operation is accomplished by so-called back-combing, that is,by lifting up the hair strands and combing them backwardly from theirouter ends towards the scalp, instead of the normal operation of combingfrom the scalp downwardly along the contour of the head.

There have been many attempts to provide combs that are more effectiveor suited as constructed for teasing or backcombing hair, but none havebeen fully satisfactory in producing a quick, easy and efficientfluffing of the hair. A conventional type of teasing comb makes use of ametal, bone, hard rubber or resin material whose teeth are made of thesame material but have some flexibility by reason of their relativelysmall section. Such material as used, however, has a relatively smooth,low friction surface, and has a substantially nil frictional action withthe hair. Dependence is placed on the spacing between the teeth forproviding the necessary guiding action. In such a construction,alternate teeth have a shortened extent with the idea in mind that suchteeth will engage the hair strands at a different depth to accomplish abacking-up, teasing action.

The present invention has been developed to solve the problem presentedby conventional teasing combs that at best have been somewhatsuperficial in their approach to the actual requirements of such anoperation. ln evaluating the factors involved, it has been discoveredthat prior devices have worked on the wrong principles from thestandpoint of providing a comb that has a smooth or minimized frictionalengagement with portions of the hair that are to be teased. Actually, ithas been determined that there should be a smooth or minimizedfrictional engagement from the standpoint of outer or longer portionsthat are to be initially by passed, but that there should be a somewhathighly frictional type of engagement from the standpoint of shorterlength, inner, progressive layer portions of the hair strands that areto be fluffed or teased. In teasing hair, the practice has been to startwith the hair that is of shorter length and then to proceedprogressively by layering towards the outermost of longer hair strands.

A teasing operation is accomplished by moving a comb is such a manner asto first turn, fluff or force backwardly the forward ends of a layer ofhair of possibly the shortest extent and then selectively continuing theoperation to tease a slightly longer layer or group of hair ends until,if desired, the full head of hair has been teased. Heretofore, using aconventional teasing comb, its inner root portions along alternate,shortened teeth have been employed as the active teasing portionsthereof. However, it has not heretofore been appreciated that theseportions, unlike the outer portions of the teeth which bypass outer hairgroups during the teasing operation, should have a different type ofsurface or one which has a gripping or frictionalized but not abrasiveengagement with the particular hair strands or groups that are beingteased, and that the portions of the hair that are not being teasedshould be subjected to outer portions of the teeth that provide asubstantially minimized frictional engagement from the standpoint oftheir contacting surfaces.

Further, it has been determined that, for optimum results, not only theroot, valley or base portions of the comb between the teeth shouldpresent surfaces that adhere to the hair strands that are being teased,but that a minimum width band, sector or area along the base portions ofthe teeth should also have such a type of surface to maximize theeffectiveness of the teasing operation. Certain criteria have to bemaintained. First, the material used for providing the teasing segmentor area of the comb should be elastic or flexible, so as to improve andnot lessen the strength of the forwardlyextending separate teeth and toenable them to flex to substantially the same extent along their free,outer, shortened reaches as they would if they were not shortened and aband, area or sector of teasing material was not being used. The teasingmaterial should have a softness of structure, but must have continuityor be unbroken, as compared to a sponge rubber or porouslike surface,and should have strength and resiliency with a frictional holding-backcharacteristic with respect to the hair particles, but withoutabrasiveness.

It has thus been an object of the invention to solve the problem whichhas been heretofore presented and to provide a new and improved approachto the teasing or back combing of hair, whether natural or artifical,and whether on the head of a user or mounted on a wig;

Another object has been to devise and construct a comb that is based ona proper coordination of factors that have been discovered ascontrolling in a hair teasing operation;

Another object has been to develop a hair grooming comblike toolutilization that will simultaneously guide and provide a smooth,minimized frictional engagement along outer reaches of its teeth and amaximized or somewhat adhesive type of engagement with hair groups alongthe inner reaches of its teeth;

A still further object of the invention has been to provide a unitizedcomb construction for progessively teasing hair which will greatlyincrease the speed and effectiveness of such an operation and thatselectively will engage various hair groups or layers in a manner thatis most conducive to a speedy back combing and teas ing thereof;

These and other objects of the invention will appear to those skilled inthe art from the illustratedembodiment and the claims.

In the drawings,

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal side view of a hair combing tool constructed toemploy the principles of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a section taken along the line 22 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a section taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. I or along thespacing between a pair of teeth of the comblike tool.

And, FIG. 4 is a fragmental perspective view illustrating another formof tool constructed in accordance with the invention.

In carrying out the invention, a rubberlike material or resin is mountedalong the base area or sector or along the root portions of teeth of acomb which may be of a typical smooth, hard surface resin or rubberconstruction. The comb may have either a conventional one part providedwith relatively widely spaced teeth and another adjoining part with moreclosely spaced teeth, such as illustrated in FIG. 1 or, may have all itsteeth of the more closely spaced type. In either event, the invention isapplied as a sector to closely spaced or adjacent teeth that arerelatively fine and not to widely spaced teeth. Such material asrepresented in FIG. I by a skid-resistant sector, band or area 14 may beprovided to an effective depth with respect to the full extent of theparticular teeth area of the comb of not less than about one-sixteenthof an inch and up to a maximum of about 50% or a half of the totallength of the teeth, so as to provide a minimum depth or length ofconventional tooth arrangement of at least 50% of the depth representingthe teasing sector employed.

Further, the material used should have good surface adherence withrespect to hair strands, as represented by a softness of about 35 plusor minus 5 durometers and, in this connection, pure latex rubber,neoprene and a snythetic silicone rubber resin have all been found to bepractical for this purpose. The silicone, neoprene synthetics andnatural rubber have natural surfaces that are suitable for theutilization outlined and, as an optimum, when the material is given asocalled cloth impression finish. They also will provide excellentadherence with hard rubber portions of a comb. Slippage resistance maybe enhanced by giving the resin a cloth impression finish which has theappearance of a piece or cloth pressed against the material before it isdried. However, a material in the nature of sponge or porous material istotally unsatisfactory.

Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawings, comb is shown having alongitudinally extending, U-shaped base, crown part or main body 11 oftypical, somewhat heavy resin or hard rubberlike construction and ashaving relatively fine and closely spaced teeth 12 and relatively coarseand widely spaced teeth 13 projecting integrally from its base or crownpaart 11. The teeth have a somewhat stiff flexibility which is greaterin the finer tooth portions 12 than the coarser portions 13. A secondarybase part area, sector or band 14 is interposed between the main body orbase part 11 and root or valley portions of the teeth 12 to form acontinuous sector or band along their longitudinal extent, This resultsin advancing or moving the root or valley portions of the teeth 12forwardly of the comb from base line position b to a forward, secondaryline position c of FIG. 1. On the other hand, the valley or rootportions of the coarser teeth 13 may be retained along the base line awhich is contiguous with and forms an extension of the base line b. Thematerial used in the band I4 which may be termed the teasing band orsector is of a different nature than the material from which the crownor base part 11 and the teeth 12 and 13 are formed. As

previously pointed out, the band 14 has the characteristic of beinghighly adherent with respect to the hair strands. The material of theband 14 may be adherently mounted in position by spraying. brushing ordipping the comb with or in the material while the material is in asubstantially liquid form and permitting or causing it to solidify orset in place. In this connection, conventional shielding or maskingmeans may be employed for protecting portions of the comb 10 that arenot to be coated.

In FIG. 4, a modified construction of the comb 20 is illustrated. Thecomb 20 also has a U-shaped base or crown part 21 but is made upentirely of relatively fine and closely spaced teeth 22. Like the combof FIG. I, it may be of hard resin or rubberlike construction. In thiscomb, a longitudinal open or slot portion 23 is provided along the basepart 21 and the lower or root portions of the teeth 22. The slot portionmay open through side ports 23a to opposite sides of the comb. That is,side ports or passageways 23a open to the root portions of the teeth 22and enable liquid resin or latex to be introduced to form a sector orband 24 along the base of the teeth when the material is poured orintroduced into the comb from one end thereof under a suitable pressure,e.g. 4O lbs/square inch. Also, a two-part mold may be employed forconfining the flow of the liquid material to base or root areas of theteeth 22 to provide the band 24 which moves or advances the valley orbase portions of the teeth 22 transversely forwardly from their originalpositions represented by the line b to the advanced positioningrepresented by the line 0 and thus, provides a secondary base portionfor the teeth.

By way of example, a natural rubber having an elongation of 600%, atensile strength of 3400 to 4000 lbs/square inch and athickness-in-place of onesixteenth of an inch has been found to behighly satisfactory in carrying out the invention. It appears, however,that the minimum thickness is about one thirtysecond of an inch. In thisconnection, the material which forms the area, band or sector 14 or 24made up, as shown, of sections between opposed side portions of theteeth 12 or 22, should completely fill the opposed spacing betweenadjacent teeth to provide a tough, continuous planar area or band thatextends transversely from the base part 11 or 21 of the combtransversely or forwardly along the lower reaches of the teeth, so as toprovide the teeth not only with advanced or forwardly positioned rootportions of an adhesivelike nature, but also provide them with loweropposed substantially planar sides or a secondary base part of the samenature. The minimum depth or forward extent of the teasing band portion14 or 24 is about one sixteenth of an inch and, as an optimum, will bemaintained within about 25% of the total length of the teeth before theapplication of the band. The depthwise extent of the band portion orsector 14 or 24 will not exceed the forward extent of the teeth 12 or 22from such band portion or sector or beyond the line 0 or 0'.

Using a teasing comb of the invention, it has been found that theoperation can be accomplished much faster in a manner that isconsiderably less time consuming and tiring to the operator. It enablesaccomplishing a greater amount of teasing more efficiently and with aminimized pull on the patrons hair. It has been found effective forvarious types and textures of hair and will not tear the hair. Oneoperator has indicated that it permits the setting of three wigs inabout the same time as before required in setting one using aconventional teasing comb having alternate longer and shorter teeth.There is also less abuse of the hair, and it has been found suitable forteasing fine texture hair since the teasing band or sector betterretains or catches the fine hair strands and, in general, enables thehair to be easily and readily teased.

What is claimed is:

1. In a method of the character shown and described for making animproved hair teasing comb, forming a base comb part and an integralgroup of spaced-apart relatively smooth-surface low friction teeth of arelatively hard material with the teeth extending forwardly in atransverse relation from the base part to define root portions at thebase part, applying and securely mounting a relatively soft andresilient rubberlike material of the class consisting of latex rubber,neoprene and silicon resin between the teeth to extend as a continuousnon-porous skid-resistant area from the root portions at the base partforwardly along and between inner reaches of the teeth and provideadvance root portions for the teeth, and employing the rubberlikematerial in the form of solidified and nonporous sections betweenopposed side portions of the teeth to define a hair teasing arealongitudinally of the base part having the characteristic of highsurface adherence without abrasiveness with respect to hair strands.

2. In a method as defined in claim 1, applying the rubberlike materialas a liquid and solidifying it in place between and substantially Withinconfines of the teeth in the form ofa relatively planar teasing bandalong the base part of the comb.

3. In a method as defined in claim 1, employing the rubberlike materialfor the teasing area that has a durometer reading of 35 i 5 as appliedand secured in position between the teeth.

4. In a method as defined in claim 1, forming the rubberlike material asa hair teasing area having a minimum thickness of about onethirty-second of an inch and a minimum depthwise extent along the rootportions of the teeth from the base part of about onesixteenth of aninch.

5. In a method of the character shown and described for making animproved hair teasing comb, providing a comb base part and teethextending integrallyforwardly in a relatively closely-spaced relationtherefrom of a relatively hard and smooth low friction resinlikematerial, applying a relatively soft and resilient rubberlike materialas a liquid along the base part and root portions of the teeth andsolidifying it in place to extend transversely-forwardly along andbetween inner reaches of the teeth of define a relatively planar teasingband representing advanced root portions for the teeth, and securelyadhering the material in solidified form to and between the teeth and tothe base part as a relatively planar teasing band along the comb that ischaracterized by its non-porous continuity, softness, and non-abrasivehigh surface adherency with respect to hair.

6. In a method as defined in claim 5, introducing the liquid rubberlikematerial into and along the root portions of the teeth longitudinallyalong said base part and through ports in said base part open throughinner portions of the teeth.

7. In a method as defined in claim 6, employing a liquid resin that hasa durometer reading of 35 i 5 when solidified in the form of the teasingband.

1. IN A METHOD OF THE CHARACTER SHOWN AND DESCRIBED FOR MAKING ANIMPROVED HAIR TEASING COMB, FORMING A BASE COMB PART AND AN INTEGRALGROUP OF SPACED-APART RELATIVELY SMOOTHSURFACE LOW FRICTION TEETH OF ARELATIVELY HARD MATERIAL WITH THE TEETH EXTENDING FORWARDLY IN ATRANSVERSE RELATION FROM THE BASE PART TO DEFINE ROOT PORTIONS AT THEBASE PART, APPLYING AND SECURELY MOUNTING A RELATIVELY SOFT ANDRESILIENT RUBBERLIKE MATERIAL OF THE CLASS CONSISTING OF LATEX RUBBER,NEOPRENE AND SILICON RESIN BETWEEN THE TEETH TO EXTEND AS A CONTINUOUSNON-POROUS SKID-RESISTANT AREA FROM THE ROOT PORTIONS AT THE BASE PARTFORWARDLY ALONG AND BETWEEN INNER REACHES OF THE TEETH AND PROVIDEADVANCE ROOT PORTIONS FOR THE TEETH, AND EMPLOYING THE RUBBERLIKEMATERIAL IN THE FORM OF SOLIDIFIED AND NON-POROUS SECTIONS BETWEENOPPOSED SIDE PORTIONS OF THE TEETH TO DEFINE A HAIR TEASING AREALONGITUDINALLY OF THE BASE PART HAVING THE CHARACTERISTIC OF HIGHSURFACE ADHERENCE WITHOUT ABRASIVENESS WITH RESPECT TO HAIR STRANDS. 2.In a method as defined in claim 1, applying the rubberlike material as aliquid and solidifying it in place between and substantially withinconfines of the teeth in the form of a relatively planar teasing bandalong the base part of the comb.
 3. In a method as defined in claim 1,employing the rubberlike material for the teasing area that has adurometer reading of 35 + or - 5 as applied and secured in positionbetween the teeth.
 4. In a method as defined in claim 1, forming therubberlike material as a hair teasing area having a minimum thickness ofabout one thirty-second of an inch and a minimum depthwise extent alongthe root portions of the teeth from the base part of about one-sixteenthof an inch.
 5. In a method of the character shown and described formaking an improved hair teasing comb, providing a comb base part andteeth extending integrally-forwardly in a relatively closely-spacedrelation therefrom of a relatively hard and smooth low frictionresinlike material, applying a relatively soft and resilient rubberlikematerial as a liquid along the base part and root portions of the teethand solidifying it in place to extend transversely-forwardly along andbetween inner reaches of the teeth of define a relatively planar teasingband representing advanced root portions for the teeth, and securelyadhering the material in solidified form to and between the teeth and tothe base part as a relatively planar teasing band along the comb that ischaracterized by its non-porous continuity, softness, and non-abrasivehigh surface adherency with respect to hair.
 6. In a method as definedin claim 5, introducing the liquid rubberlike material into and alongthe root portions of the teeth longitudinally along said base part andthrough ports in said base part open through inner portions of theteeth.
 7. In a method as defined in claim 6, employing a liquid resinthat has a durometer reading of 35 + or - 5 when solidified in the formof the teasing band.